PRIŠTINA SENDING INDICTMENTS TO SERBS IN CENTRAL SERBIA BY INTERNATIONAL MAIL

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 4 /SRNA/ - The Priština Prosecutor's Office is sending indictments and court summonses to citizens in central Serbia as international mail through third countries, and receipt of such a letter allows an indictment to be brought and a trial to be held in absentia, Zoran Anđelković, director of Serbia Post, said.

Anđelković explained that the mail is not sent directly to central Serbia, but arrives via Ljubljana, Vienna and Switzerland as international mail, in accordance with the rules of the Universal Postal Union, a specialized UN agency.

"Once the mail is received, they are considered to have been notified, and then they can also bring an indictment against them in absentia. That is the standard of the Council of Europe," Anđelković told Tanjug.

He specified that Priština does not issue arrest warrants through Interpol, but sends them by agreement to countries that have recognized it, while Serbia Post most often returns such mail as items with an unknown address.

He also pointed out that there is a dilemma over whether it would be better to notify the recipients so that they would not be arrested in a transit country.

He also said he had been asked how Priština's institutions know the exact addresses of people in central Serbia.

"They can also obtain the data, including the exact address, simply by entering the personal identification number into a computer. That can only happen if someone works in a service that has access to the computer," said Anđelković, who is also a former president of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija.